on our broadcast tonight, the showdown, president obama, mitt romney and the debate in denver everyone is talking about. breaking news about american airlines. why dozens of planes in the air tonight are being grounded when they land. out of gas. why some gas stations are shutting down in a placehere prices are already over $5 a gallon. is it a hidden danger in plastics and cans of high importance to mothers and their newborns. and what we look like to them. "nightly news" begins now. to t. "nightly news" begins now.

good evening. they now estimate over 67 million of us watched the debate in denver last night and what people saw was a highly energized, motivated and combative mitt romney sharing the stage with a subdued and lackluster president obama. what they saw was mitt romney on his way over the course of 90 minutes to scoring a clear and consensus victory in what will be the first of three meetings between these two men. for romney, today felt like a new chapter. here's a look at the crowd waiting for him in virginia, while the president today said some things he was expected to say on that stage last night. we begin our coverage here tonight with nbc's andrea mitchell. good evening. >> good evening. the president showed up today armed with attack lines against mitt romney a day late. trying to regain his footing after a rocky debate performance, the president today

seemed everything he was not last night. >> the man on stage last night, he does not want to be held accountable to the real mitt romney's decisions and what he's been saying for the last year. >> mitt romney was greeted with thunderous applause this morning. >> last night i thought was a great opportunity for the american people to see two very different visions for the country. >> the morning after, even supporters said the president seemed tentative, defensive, frequently looking down at his notes. perhaps like some of his predecessors in debates. ford, carter, bush and bush. almost too accustomed to the oval office. not used to being challenged. the president did not use some of his potent attack lines. mitt romney's comments to wealthy contributors that 47% don't pay federal income taxes and are dependent on the government or romney's possession on women's health issues.

>> romney says he's going to cut loopholes, but won't name they will. romney said i'm going to replace obama care, but won't say with that. >> romney clearly came to play, standing toe to toe with the president. through plenty of fireworks. >> your title is the president of an airplane and house, but not your own facts. >> now, governor romney's proposal that he's been promoting for 18 months calls for a $5 trillion tax cut on top of $2 trillion of additional spending for our military. >> i don't have a tax cut of a scale you're talking about. we ought to provide tax relief to people in the middle class, but i'm not going to reduce the share of taxes paid by high income people. >> however, independent fact checkers say romney's plan adds up to nearly $5 trillion and would give the biggest breaks to the highest. romney made a point of saying

he'd cut the budget for pbs, even to jim lehrer. >> i like pbs, big bird. i actually love you, too, but i'm not going to keep on spending money on things to b r borrow money from china to pay for. >> he'll get rid of regular laces on wall street, but he's going to crack down on sesame street. >> today, a key romney surrogate said this. >> what people saw was president that revealed his imcompetence, how lazy and detached he is. he didn't want to prepare for this debate. he's lazy and disengaged. >> now, the pressure is on paul ryan and joe biden, who debate next week. >> i don't want to say anything in the debate that's not completely accurate. >> and the stakes are a lot higher for the president to come up with a different game plan for his next debate with mitt romney two weeks from now. >> andrea mitchell remains in denver, colorado. and thanks to social media.

getting reaction to a debate isn't a morning after thing anymore. it's a real time thing about the talk about the event is still going on tonight. that part of our story from nbc's john yang. >> the right answer is to say how do we make the private sector more efficient. >> reporter: even before the candidates finished talking, another debate was raging online. the twitter world exploded. a conservative journalist, an absolutely one sided debate. big, big win for romney. bill maher. i can't believe i'm saying this, but obama looks like he does need a telepromter. analyst stu rothenberg. what happened to obama? the president didn't seem prepared. it continued on the air waves. >> i don't know what he was doing out there. he had his head down, enduring the debate. >> romney supporters set brated. >> this was from start to finish, particularly measured against fears and expectation.

>> reporter: after enduring weeks of headlines about gaffes, romney woke up to read he had been declared the debate winner. the obama campaign struggled to explain. >> so, you're happy with his demeanor and energy level tonight? >> what i'm happy with is the path he wants to lead this country on. >> reporter: even while cheering the president today, his supporters seemed puzzled by his debate performance. >> i didn't know quite what was going on as far as maybe he's dealin with some crisis in the middle east. >> reporter: and battleground states like colorado and ohio, undecided voters nbc gathered to watch the debate say they saw something new. >> governor romney just sort of stepped up his game in terms of bringing something new to this campaign. >> it did change the way i thought about him. i liked him better. >> reporter: it was the most heavily tweeted in history. even big bird was a hot topic. this went viral. if mitt romney wins, this is

what i'll be forced to do. this tidal wave of real time commentary on social media is just another uncontrollable factor that campaigns struggle to deal with as they try to get their messages out. >> john yang sampling the reaction in chicago and elsewhere. peter alexander is in fischerville, virginia tonight. chuck todd traveling with the president in madison, wisconsin and peter, what was it like on the road today? >> after a brief pause for prayer here, this is going to be a party-like atmosphere. they are trying to build on the momentum from last night. a country music band will be performing. let's give you a sense of what it was like on the plane. we saw mitt romney as loose and relaxed as we have seen him all campaign. he was all smiles and laughter, joking with his advisers in the front cabin on the plane. before we took off, the captain

came on and said that the denver control tower has congratulated the governor on last night's performance as well. that of course was met by applause by people sitting alongside the governor. a top adviser told me the campaign is in a really good mood, but are going out of their way not to appear to be gloating. another top story, when donors were at romney's hotel last night, rob portman came by. as one aide told us, portman played a better president obama than the president himself. >> peter alexander traveling with the romney campaign. back over to chuck todd. same question to you. having seen that bizarre development of people in the crowd at an obama rally wondering what was going on last night. >> yeah, that was unbelievable. it's safe to say the swagger and over confidence is gone from this campaign. and i would call it anxiety from them today. this is the way the obama campaign tried to act today. number one, they put out the

first ad using debate footage, calling mitt romney dishonest. david plouffe, senien strategis used the word dishonest for not being honest nearly a dozen times this afternoon, so they're trying to put the focus on mitt romney and saying hey, he gave a great performance, but didn't exactly, wasn't exactly honest. it was rally therapy out here though. he did have 30,000 people show up in madison. >> wrapping it up for us tonight. thanks. we have two big and still developing stories tonight having to do with how we all get around on the east coast on the west, beginning with new troubles for american airlines and for that, we want to go to tom costello in our d.c. bureau. >> american airlines is tonight saying it is going to ground all 48 of the suspect 757s that had those seats that were becoming disconnected. they will be grounded as soon as they land.

the airline says it's mechanics now believe they discovered the real problem that caused some seats to become disconnected from the floor. something called the seat lock plunger mechanism wasn't properly holding the seats down. it was just last night that american said it had finished inspe inspecting all 48 planes and returned them to service. now, they're coming back out of service to make this necessary adjustment. this will mean some delays and cancellations as the airline juggles replacement aircraft. american hopes to have repairs completed by this weekend. >> imagine your surprise when those customers and aircraft land tonight. now out to california. of course, the driving capital of the world where the problem concerns gasoline. both where to buy it and what you'll pay for it. kristen dahlgren, good evening. >> reporter: 5.69 for unleaded. so much that they had to put

signs up apologizing to customers saying it is not our fault. this is normally the time of year we see gas prices drop, but last night, prices went up an average of eight cents a gallon and prices are still climbing. they're calling this the highest single day increase in history. it started with that fire at the richmond refinery in august. there was also a power failure at an exxon mobil refinery in southern california this week and a pipeline shutdown that further cut supplies so much that some gas stations ran out of gas includinging a costco near los angeles, so some station owners saying they're thinking of shutting down comple completely. they say it's too difficult to sell at these prices. >> kristen dahlgren in southern california. and late news tonight about that u.s. border patrol agent killed earlier this week along the arizona mexico border. mark potter, who has covered the drug war extensively for us, is in sierra vista where he lived

with his family. good evening. >> reporter: federal investigators tell nbc news that based on evidence they have found so far, they are looking into whether the shooting may have been a friendly fire incident. agents shooting at each other. he was shot and killed early tuesday morning while responding to desert sensors that track illegal movement across the word board e. they had reported being fired upon about five miles knnorth o the border. u.s. and local officials blamed the shootings on armed criminals and mexican authorities say they have made two arrests in the case. but while u.s. investigators say they have reached no conclusions and have a lot of work to do, they cannot rule out the possibility this was a friendly fire incident. >> mark potter with this late development out of arizona.

we've learned that after weeks of waiting for access, the fbi has now come and gone from benghazi in the last 24 hours investigating that attack on the u.s. consulate that killed our ambassador to libya and three other americans. u.s. military provided back-up to the fbi team while they were on the ground. what happened there, who may be responsible and what the obama administration has said about it is a growing issue in the presidential campaign and after a syrian shell landed in turkey on wednesday killing five women on impact and then turkey fired back, the turkish parliament approved possible further military action against syria. t turkey says this is not a declaration of war, but a warning that turkey will defend itself. this incident in a region where tensions are already high has raised grounded fears of a wider

war. we put some of amon's reporting on our website for you tonight. still ahead, as we continue along the way, new research about a chemical we all come in contact with that has raised questions before. this time, the concern is about mothers and their babies. and later, an extraordinary view mothers and their babies. and later, an extraordinary view of the wor firik no you don't, honey. yes, you do! don't! i've washed a few cupcake tins in my day... oh, so you're a tin expert now. is that... whoa nelly! hi, kitchen counselor here. he's actually right... with cascade complete. see cascade complete pacs work like thousands of micro-scrubbing brushes to help power away tough foods even in corners and edges. so, i was right, right? i've gotta run. more households use cascade dishwashing detergent than any other brand.

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attention. a chemical in plastics called bpa and concerns about how it could cause health problems. now, a new study finds a possible cause for concern for moms and their newborns, especially boys. our report from our chief science correspondent, robert bazell. >> reporter: jenna, like many moms, worries about protecting her kids from chemical contamination. especially the effects of bpa, found in plastics. >> i'm avoiding plastic in general. we try to drink out of glass. all of our water bottles are reuseable. >> reporter: a new stud zi suggests moms may be passing along bpa to their kids at birth. in a study, those with the highest levels of bpa had lower thyroid levels themselves and so did their sons. why boys? scientists aren't sure, but they've seen the same thing in

animal studies. thyroid hormones help control many systems in the body. >> if bpa is impacting the levels during pregnancy, it could be affecting the learning of children later in life. >> reporter: it is part of many widely used plastic products. most americans have trace amounts in their bodies. while there have been many studies of bpa in animals, this is the first to show an effect on hormones in pregnant women and their newborns. in a statement, the american chemistry council said the author's speculation that bpa is linked to health affects caused by thyroid levels in women and newborns is not spored by the data. the authors know the levels reported were within normal range. >> baby boys, but not baby girls. >> reporter: the scientists agree the results are preliminary and agree that the kinds of changes have any effect

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this happens in october. there are places that this week will see a 40-degree drop in temperatures as the new air moves in from our neighbors to the north and in fargo and grand forks, they're deal with the first snow of the season. some folks woke up to a foot of it this morning. we'll remind you as the day gets closer so you can stock up on snacks and beverages, but a comet is coming. a big and brilliant comet arriving in november 2013. it could be 15 times brighter than the moon and visible in broad daylight over the u.s. we will be your comet network

and will keep you updated. miguel cabrera is going into the baseball history books. last night, he won the triple crown, leading the american league in home runs, batting average and rbis for the tigers. last player to do this was carl yastrzemski back in 1967. one of cabrera's teammates said it was just starting to sink in in the clubhouse. it was probably the greatest thing he would see in his career. next, if you've ever wished you could take wing, we've got a great story for you tonight. and reimagined nearly everything in it? gave it greater horsepower and best in class 38 mpg highway... advanced headlights... and zero gravity seats? yeah, that would be cool. ♪ introducing the completely reimagined nissan altima. it's our most innovative altima ever.

nissan. innovation that excites. ♪ his morning starts with arthritis pain. and two pills. afternoon's overhaul starts with more pain. more pills. triple checking hydraulics. the evening brings more pain. so, back to more pills. almost done, when... hang on. stan's doctor recommended aleve. it can keep pain away all day with fewer pills than tylenol. this is rudy. who switched to aleve. and two pills for a day free of pain. ♪ [ female announcer ] and try aleve for relief from tough headaches. [ female announcer ] and try aleve i've been a superintendent for 30 some years at many different park service units across the united states. the only time i've ever had a break is when i was on maternity leave. i have retired from doing this one thing that i loved. now, i'm going to be able to have the time to explore something different. it's like another chapter.

finally here tonight, since our first days on earth, we've sat on lawns and beaches and benches and looked skyward and wondered what it must be like to be up there and while we long ago learned to fly ourselves with the help of engines and alloys and electronics sitting in seats that are bolted to the floor, knowing what a bird's life is like, what the world must look like to them has eluded us until now.

>> it is a wish as old as time. for man to soar like a bird. >> our cameras revealed how hard and fast the snow goose has to flap. >> in a new documentary by john downer, we get as close as we've ever come. >> the story was set out to tell was of the continent, but in the end, it told a lot more than that. the world is much more interconnected that you think. >> where did they take you that you didn't expect? >> we'd heard about this incredible thing where these huge rays, these fish, jump out of the sea and fly. they've never been captured on film. >> until they followed the brown pelicans to mexico's sea of cort cortez. for every minute you see in the show airing on discovery saturday night, there are ten hours of film that didn't make air. >> i think anything that can fly

at some point or another, we've put a camera on it. we made miniature cameras birds could carry. >> four years in the making, they hand raised snow geese and a vulture to fly with cameras for this film. how did they keep it on? >> we developed harnesses. they were so carefully positioned, it didn't disturb their flight. >> downer also used spy cameras hidden in mud or behind faux fla ming os. it took more than 100 days to get this spectacular scene. anne thompson, nbc news, new york. >> spectacular. that's our broadcast on a thursday night. thank you for being here with us and please don't forget "rock center" tonight. it includes matt lauer's

interview with mark zuckerberg. we hope to see you back here tomorrow evening. good night.